Lately, I’ve been coming to grips with my geekiness. Having a blog, freaking out about missing Google Reader subscriptions while on vacation and bringing up Facebook at parties should be indication enough. Still, somehow I thought I was mostly normal. Apparently scoring high on the geek-o-meter may not be a bad thing. Matt thought I was a nerd before we started dating and now we’re getting married. And it seems like the mainstream embraces us too — from movies to Mariah:

This video may be old news to most of you, but I’ve been putting off watching it until today.

I just checked out the trends section of my Google Reader:

From your 71 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 5,394 items, starred 84 items, shared 117 items, and emailed 3 items.

So while I may not be blogging, I’m blog reading aplenty. And be sure to check out my shared items: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/03383705544432067147. (RSS feed for it here.)

It’s like a second (or technically third) blog of mine, since everything I post is something that makes me smile.

*Don’t know what Google Reader is? It’s a system used to read blogs in one spot, automatically updating when new subscriptions posts are added. Looks like this:

Hey Ladies–if you go to Oprah.com by 5 p.m. today, she’s offering Suze Orman’s book free! It’s called Women & Money.

Thanks Oprah!

I would like to start this post by admitting that I have a problem. Let’s move on now that we have that covered.

One of the many stores that sends me email almost daily had the following subject: Better Then Chocolate. And I just couldn’t help but pressing the link to feedback@company.com. I just had to let them know that it’s THAN not THEN. It’s a matter of comparing versus timing. This same sin was committed in the book I was reading on Friday.

I just couldn’t take the torture any longer. And I repeat: I know it was a jerky thing to do. (It’s especially jerky from one who still has trouble with the whole “affect or effect” issue.) Whether it’s menus or manuals, I have a lot of pent-up corrections in me and I consider my feedback email to be the pot boiling over.

Thanks for understanding.

* The one nearby Panera just happened to have its grand opening today, the day my coworker and I decided to see if it had opened yet
* I come up with a brilliant business plan for what will hopefully be an awesome career
* My veil from eBay shipped just a few hours after I clicked “buy it now” and I will likely be under budget in that area
* My FICO score was much higher than I thought
* There was still plenty of mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer
* And other things that I can’t remember

You know it’s a good day when you can’t keep track of the awesome happenings in just a few hours

Zillow.com is my new best friend. Even though I always mispronounce his name as Zwillow, it has all the good 411 and doesn’t mind that I’m just a tad nosy. Okay, extremely nosy (but it’s a trait that brings in my salary, so it can’t be all that bad, right?).

While my traffic at the website is more in the realm of stalking, it has been one of many nifty, new real estate resources that will help me in making my first purchase. The site allows you to type in an address and see how much a house is worth. While it can’t tell whether the “quaint and cozy house with character” has marble countertops or mismatching, outdated appliances, it’s a good resource for those looking to get a good deal. Especially now that the market shows the rate of shifty house flippers is growing as steadily as foreclosures.

While it can’t document a history of construction shortcuts, Zillow, like any good best friend, can help the bring to light the reality of a real estate agent trying to woo you into buying that hot mess that’s been on the market for months on end. If you listen closely enough, you can hear it whisper sweet nothings in your ear like, “Don’t be fooled by staging tricks, sugar. A queen-size bed alongside floor-length window treatments is your first warning sign! 1,000 square feet is an entrapment, not ‘cozy,’ so keep looking. Love you, bestie!”

March 14 = 3/14=3.14…to infinity and beyond. I don’t know why I get so excited about Pi Day, because I really don’t like math. Last week Matt made me figure out how much tax I owed on our group dinner tab. As I feebly tried to calculate numbers in my tired brain while being distracted by goodness that is TGI Friday’s Jack Daniel’s sauce, I noticed the looks of disbelief fixated in my direction. When I couldn’t spit out an answer quickly, I slid down my chair in embarrassment as I mumbled something to the tune of “at least I can correctly use there, their, they’re, your and you’re.”

But, you may be surprised to know, I love Pi Day because of of words. Specifically, these words that I stumbled across several years ago:

Oh Number PI
(Sing to “Oh Christmas Tree”)

Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
Your digits are unending,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
No pattern are you sending.
You’re three point one four one five nine,
And even more if we had time,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
For circle lengths unbending.

Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
You are a number very sweet,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
Your uses are so very neat.
There’s 2 Pi r and Pi r squared,
A half a circle and you’re there,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
We know that Pi’s a tasty treat.

The Pi Day song is a tasty treat indeed. So go out to Baker’s Square and celebrate with your friends! In the meantime, I’ll eat my mud pie flavored Snack Pack.

While it could be said I’m wasting time reading and posting this, I think it’s worth it. And you may want to bookmark this guy because he makes cents.

Sorry, couldn’t help that one.

From The Simple Dollar: Personal Productivity and Personal Finance: Ten Techniques I Use To Juggle This Blog, My Money, My Work, and My Life.

Thanks, Matt, my blogs-once-a-year boyfriend. :O)

Several of my college friends are having trouble finding jobs. Since I found one so quickly, they’ve dubbed me Master Job Finder. Most job postings are the same: techincal writer wanted, must possess minimum of 3 years experience, good iTunes library a plus, etc. But never have I read such desperation for a good writer:

Back in grade school, some people used to make fun of the smart kids. We hire them. We hire them because some challenges demand intellect. Some opportunities require curiosity. And some questions are so tired of being answered with the same trite cliches that they’re begging for someone with brilliance and an offbeat sense of humor to wrestle with the answers. … It’s a big challenge, but it’s a big Internet, and there’s work to be done.

First off, the brilliant intro obviously begs for writers oozing with intellect and maturity. But I’m confused. Are they hiring the people who made fun of the smart kids? (If so, Perez Hilton must be hiring contributing writers!) Finally, someone values the genius that is playground bullying. Mean little kids are challenged every day to come up with new wisecracks that will guarantee tears and years of therapy for the exponentially growing population of child geeks.

The world, like this company, needs these seasoned slanderers to share their misunderstood humor for the betterment of literature and mankind.

So please, Company, hire my friends. We’ve made a sport out of wordsmithing and making fun of people. It’s called blogging.

I hate math. Addition, subtraction, division, numbers, you name it. (The only exception being subtracting percentages when I calculate [read: ballpark] how much something on sale will ultimately cost. At least that math has a point!) Even when it comes to simple problems, I freak out. I could be wrong and therefore be viewed as stupid scum of the Earth! People will say, “She graduated from college and can’t figure out how much to tip?” Thank goodness I have Matt to save me. That, and I can shoot right back at people who don’t know the difference between its and it’s; there, their or they’re; etc. But the cute phrase “I’m a wordsmith who needs a passport into the foreign land of numbers” is only cute for so long.

I have actually gone quite far in life without needing much of what the SAT quizzed me on. But reality finally set in and I learned the value of being good at math. I just opened a letter from my bank saying my deposit amount was wrong. I cheated myself out of 100 dollars! I forgot to carry a one! Bless their digital hearts for saying it must have been the keypad’s doing, not the operator.

Case in point: They should have a test to see who can or cannot be allowed to deposit checks by ATM. Or they could just bring back the calculators!